I used worsted weight cotton yarn for the hat and and worsted weight acrylic yarn for the hair. I read the instructions wrong and made 96 eight foot strands instead of four foot strands, so the braid is pretty long even though I ended up cutting a lot off the length. This is a simple easy to follow pattern. Bought some sparkly snowflakes in the scrapbooking dept to add to braid. Might re-braid and roll hair along edge of hat first.